No I do it

Mr. Elliot just turned 23 months a couple days ago. Although I am starting to get sad when I realize I will no longer have a one year old, what is capturing most of my attention these days is Elliot's need to suddenly assert his independence. His favorite phrase all of last week was, "no, I do it" which meant I needed to stop helping him and let him try it on his own. Mostly it was clothes, some other things snuck in there like washing hands and cleaning up, but he is definitely wanting to be a big boy now.

The latest manifestation of this stubbornness has come in the form of sleep. Elliot has always been an awesome sleeper and is usually half asleep before his head hits the pillow. The last couple of days he hasn't wanted to nap. As soon as we put him in his bed he starts crying and no matter how much we rock or cuddle him and he falls asleep, the moment we move him to his crib he starts crying. Today I tried every technique I could think of to get him to nap. I rocked him, sang extra songs, I even crawled into his crib with him, but the only technique that worked was letting him settle himself down and cry a bit. Unfortunately when he decided to finally give in at 3 pm, and my little man who normally naps for 3 hours, only got one hour of sleep.

To say he was grumpy when he woke up was an understatement. It was late in the afternoon and we had been cooped up for 1.5 days so we all headed straight from the front yard since there was a bit of sunshine. Here is what Mr. Crankipants did while Erik played.

If you are wondering, he is not laying down because he is tired, he is trying to hide from me. When he gets mad or upset he curls up into a ball and refuses to look at me or acknowledge me in anyway and when he finally does look my way I get the most killer expressions. Seriously, if looks could kill on this guy.

So Elliot has been afraid to go into the police car since the moment we got it, but one day I had his friend William over and his friend loved playing in it and Elliot watched this all happen. Ever since that day, Elliot has been getting braver with this car and today, it actually cheered him up to sit in it. I think he felt like the big boy he was.

This is also a common part of the "no I can do it" motto of Elliot right now. His rain boot fell off. Its a size too big so they fall off constantly. Today he insisted on trying to put it on all by himself and why not let him try, rain boots are easy enough to put on yourself. Its definitely a work in progress for this little guy.

There is always one sure way to get this guy smiling and its not dessert like his brother. Its to serve him his favorite meal, any pasta with three cheese pasta sauce, sausage and veggies. He had three helpings of spaghetti tonight.

For the last couple days it has been pouring rain here. The wind and rain were so bad we didn't even leave the house all of Sunday and my boys were officially stir crazy by Monday afternoon. In all that time we got 4.5 inches of rain according to my rain gage. So this afternoon when the sun was out of course we had to head outside to catch some rays and play in the puddles.

My friend warned me when we were at the park Friday morning that it was going to rain all weekend, but I guess I didn't believe her as I basked in the 70 degree temperatures roasting in the sun. This meant I did nothing to clean up for the storm and my backyard was a mess after the winds. Lots of things out there that shouldn't have been.

 

While I cleaned up the mess I made and we waited for the right moment to wake up Elliot I had Erik splash around a bit. He said "mommy look at the footprints I made, take a picture," so of course I did. I love the imagination growing on him lately.

Then we woke up Mr. Crankipants and went outside to play. Erik on his bike and eventually his brother to follow. I love watching my kids splash around in puddles and play outside when it is wet. Its the same, but different and they have to learn to compensate. It just makes me happy.

Erik did fall a lot riding on his bike today, but that is all part of the process of learning and he was never hurt. He just brushed himself off every time and went on playing and that is how I like it. I want him to fall, make mistakes and pick himself up. I try to give him safe opportunities to do just that.

Here are the many faces of Erik today. No emotions, just faces today.

 

 

When Erik grabbed this bungee cord he made his "I am grabbing something that is going to me into trouble noise" and I just looked at him and carried on. He has tried this trick many times so I am not sure why he felt guilty taking it out today. I must say, this is is the first time I have seen it work in his many attempt, I guess "try and try again."

Elliot did cheer up enough to ride his trike for a few minutes. Of course seconds later Erik decided he was done outside so we all were finished. Such is life with two young children, the moment is gone in just seconds.